Her Chocolate Russet Eyes
by thegirlwrappedinwords
Summary: After Clove's death, Cato makes some bad mistakes.


A/N: I made this a while back. It focuses on Cato and his feelings after Clove's death, leading up to his own death. Enjoy :) ~thegirlwrappedinlightning~

Disclaimer: I do not own anything you recognize like characters and such.

In an instant, I am there. Blood stains my hands and sword. Thresh doesn't have time to think. I have cornered him where he is useless. For the first time since I first met Thresh, he looked powerless, weak, yet ready to die. It's too bad. If only he hadn't killed her.  
Clove's smile clouds my eyes and for a second, I drop my sword. Then I shake the thought of her from my mind as I grab Thresh and slit his throat. Blood mixes with rain and lightning flashes through the night. Revenge fills my brain. I had done it. I had killed Thresh. But the thirst… it isn't quenched.  
It'll okay, Clove. You'll be able to rest in peace soon. I just have to find her, the Girl on Fire.  
Rage fills my throat and I stalk out, trying to find my prey. The lightning is behind me as the rain washes away yet another body with it.

I hear the song. That four note song of that little girl that took my knife, I had recognized it when I ordered Clove to send Marvel after the girl. Only two people knew the song. One of them was dead and the other had helped in the murder of Clove. I could practically remember when I found Clove, my sweet, sweet Clove.

I'd been sleeping when I'd heard her screams. Clove was screaming. My eyes opened wide as I jumped up from the tree. Clove? I looked at the spot where we'd both been sleeping together. No one was there. "CATO!" a voice shrieked. And fear ran through my spine. No. Clove was probably off in the woods somewhere. She was too fast and clever to be trapped. Another shriek and I had to check it out. I looked down and there were footprints, Clove sized footprints.  
In an instant, I started running. "Clove!" I yelled, so that she could hear that I was coming for her. I wouldn't let her die. I ignored the ache in my leg from sleeping wrong and the feel of leaves hitting my face, my eyes, as I ran frantically through the forest. She was at the Cornucopia. I thought I had told her to wait until they both went so that they could kill the other tributes together. Together.  
Another scream, but this one was different. It was a shriek but it was cut off. It was Clove's scream. I ran wilder than I had ever run before. When I got there, it was too late. Clove's dainty body that had always been comforting and strong despite her size was stiff against the ground. Her skin was pale and long lines of blood ran down her head. Next to her head laid a rock, a sizable rock with a pointed edge and there was blood… scarlet blood everywhere.  
I gasped for air and braced myself against a tree. "Clove!" I panted as it felt like the air had been punched out of my body when I watched her. I crouched by her side and buried my face in her neck. We had had it all planned out. Tears slipped out of my eyes and fell onto her cold, lifeless neck. We were going to win, together. We were going to be together after this. Cato and Clove, the real star-crossed lovers from District 2.

All I could see was red as the rage pooled out of me. My running grew jagged and sloppy. All I could think of was snapping the neck of that brunette beauty that had killed my own love. The birds seemed to caw in fright as I sprinted past them. She was close. Katniss Everdeen, the girl who I was going to set on fire.  
When I'm finally through the trees, I see them. Lover Boy and Fire Girl, they're together. My rage is fueled. It should have been Clove and I like that. But Katniss had to get caught; she had to fuel Clove's thirst for blood. She had to taunt Clove; she had to get Clove killed. But snaps and snarls came from the bushes and I realize that this isn't a time for thinking of revenge. I need to survive so that I can avenge Clove. So when I run towards the two tributes, I don't go straight for the kill. No, that would get me killed in a matter of seconds. I run straight past them, for the Cornucopia.  
The Fire Girl follows me with Bread Boy quick on her tail. They see them, the muttations. Fire Girl makes it up but Lover Boy is struggling to get up. Now would be the best chance to just… push them off into the ground, full of muttations, ready to snap their bones and eat their meat. But I can't. I've been running for too long. Running from the mutts, running to get to the 'Star-Crossed Lovers', running away from the memory of Clove's death.  
For a second, I know that we have some sort of alliance or peace between the three of us. I don't kill them. They don't kill me. We just all have to get through the mutts. Katniss goes to try and fend off some of the mutts and that's when I break the alliance. This is the end. I grab Lover Boy in a tight headlock, making sure to cut off his air. She took away my life, my one true love. I figure it's only appropriate to do the same to her. Peeta is clawing at my arm, for breath, trying anything to get a fresh breath of air. I wonder if this is what it felt like for Clove when Thresh killed her.  
Fire Girl finally notices it. The fact that her little boyfriend is about to be killed. She's about to shoot an arrow at me and I can't help but give a crazed smile. Blood covers my body. I haven't washed Clove or Thresh's blood off of me. Dried blood sticks to my arms, my entire body when the thought occurs to me.  
"Shoot me and he goes down with me," I laugh manically. The thought is funny. So many deaths weigh on me. Clove's, Thresh's, soon mine. It feels like I've been drugged like there's this sense that I will be free of that pain soon enough. She just has to kill me. Fire Girl has to kill me and with me, Lover Boy. She'll be the victor. She'll be what Clove and I had dreamed of being, ever since we were children.  
The next thing I know, a sharp pain stings my right hand as my grip loosens from Peeta's neck. I hear Lover Boy gasp for air and see Fire Girl grab his hand in the last second. I feel my feet slip from the Cornucopia and I'm falling. It's the strangest feeling, falling. The freest feeling that you could ever feel as the air hits you just right. But then all of that disappears when you hit the ground. The pain jars your body as your spine hits the ground. But that pain doesn't compare to what I felt next.  
Mutts, it seems like there are millions. The sight of them makes me yell. So many of these mutts resemble the tributes that I had killed, had watched kill. I grab for Clove's knife that I had saved, trying to fend off one by one. But there are too many of them. I struggle for another way out, trying to climb up the Cornucopia yet again. Then my eyes lock with one of the mutts. The muttation has dark brown hair and those eyes. Those eyes make me stop all movement, just so I can stare into them. Clove's eyes. A part of me wants to dive forward for that one mutt. To feel Clove near me again, or at least a little part that resembles her. My thoughts are cut off by that same mutt, tackling me, the weight crushing some of my bones and its teeth tearing at my limbs. I let out another yell, followed by even more screams. This is what Clove must've felt: the need to breathe, blood rushing to your injured limbs but never really being able to heal you, if I survived this, I wouldn't have any reason to live. I'm vaguely aware of a change in the wind as I feel myself dying, blood running to the parts of me that the mutt had torn away. My eyes squint at the arrow sent from the top of the Cornucopia. It's one of the last things that I see as the pain overtakes my body, before it all goes black. An arrow and Clove's chocolate russet eyes.


End file.
